Last week we noted that the fallout from Erdogan’s political purge led to the first diplomatic scandal when in response to calls from Austrian chancellor Christian Kern to half Turkey’s European accession talks “which are nothing but diplomatic fiction“, Turkey shot back by accusing Austria of being the “capital of radical racism.” Today, Germany joined the fray when the leader of Germany’s liberal Free Democrats, Christian Lindner, compared Erdogan’s purge of state institutions to the actions of the Nazi party in the 1930s in comments published on Sunday in Germany’s Bild.
Lindner, like this website on July 16, said he saw parallels between Erdogan’s behavior and the aftermath of the Reichstag fire in 1933 portrayed by the Nazis as a Communist plot against the government and used by Adolf Hitler to justify massively curtailing civil liberties.
The Reichstag Fire of 27 February, 1933
“We are experiencing a coup d’etat from above like in 1933 after the Reichstag fire. He is building an authoritarian regime tailored solely to himself,” Lindner told the Bild am Sonntag.
Christian Lindner, chairman of the liberal Free Democratic Party FDP: Reuters
“Because the rights and freedoms of the individual no longer play a role, he cannot be a partner for Europe,” he added. His comments echo those of Austria’s far-right Heinz-Christian Strache who said on Saturday that Erdogan’s use of the failed putsch in July to crack down on his opponents was reminiscent of Hitler’s use of the Reichstag blaze to amass greater power.
The implication from these allegations is that public officials finally challenge the narrative of a “failed coup”, insinuating that it was all merely a staged attempt by Erdogan, who produced all mid-July, in what would culminate with one massive power grab. Erdogan has angrily rejected suggestions that he or his government might have been behind the failed coup, which he has blamed on the followers of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric.
According to Turkish post-coup folklore, Erdogan narrowly avoided capture and possible death on the night of the attempted coup, which makes no sense in light of prior revelations that a jet belonging to the coup forces had Erdogan’s plane in radar lock and yet refused to shoot it down. Turkey promptly cobbled together an even more ludicrous explanation alleging that “the rebel pilot of an F-16 that had the Turkish president’s plane in its sights failed to strike only because the fighter jet ran out of fuel and had to change route, thus saving Erdogan’s life during the coup attempt, the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper claims.” What is even more amusing, or perhaps insulting, is that the regime actually assumed the public would be naive enough to believe this.
Erdogan has yet to respond to this latest allegation he is the new coming of Adolf Hitler (coming from German and Austrian accusers, of all places): the FDP are not currently represented in Germany’s Bundestag but have previously governed as a junior coalition partner to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives (CDU) and are a potential ally for them after federal elections in autumn 2017.
However, Lindner criticized Merkel’s response so far to the crackdown on Erdogan’s opponents in the army, civil service, academia and media. “It disgusts me that the EU accession talks (for Turkey) have not been ended long ago. But Mrs Merkel is only cautiously urging ‘proportionality’,” he said.
Indeed, it is surprising that Europe so quickly unleashed sanctions on Putin in 2014, and has yet to unveil any form formal criticism of what increasingly louder voices is a total breakdown of democracy in this particular European ally. Actually it is not surprising at all: as we explained last week, Turkey has all the leverage in ongoing negotiations with Europe: its bases provide NATO with a middle-eastern hub for military missions; it is a key energy nexus between the east and west, it is an outpost for 2 million Syrian refugees which could resume their exodus toward Germany, and if “lost”, Turkey would promptly gravitate toward Russia’s sphere of influence.
Germany’s foreign minister on Friday resisted a push by Austria to halt the talks with Turkey on joining the European Union, saying the bloc needed to think more broadly about how to frame its relationship with Ankara in troubled times.
Meanwhile, during another massive rally in Turkey today, Erdogan once again once again tested to see how far he can push Europe, saying “it is the Turkish parliament that will decide on the death penalty… I declare it in advance, I will approve the decision made by the parliament.” This suggestion comes as western nations have been critical of the government’s response to the coup. The European Union refuses to accept capital punishment in member states.
The fact that Erdogan continues to challenge European diplomatic orthodoxy indicates how much leverage he believes he has, even though according to the latest survey by Emnid, 52% of Germans want to end the EU-Turkey refugee pact, Bild am Sonntag reported today. Another 69% want immediate stop of EU aid for refugees in Turkey, redirect financial support to Greece; while 66% want to end EU-membership talks with Turkey amid government arrests of thousands of opposition members, critics, journalists.
And so Merkel finds herself between a rock and a hard place: end negotiations with Erdogan and be flooded with millions more in Syrian refugees and potential Saudi Arabia-funded “ISIS” terrorists, or defy her voters and continue her appeasement of the person her own political allies accuse of being the next Hitler.
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